Many institutional investors require the ability to perform transactions, such as currency exchanges, electronically. This “electronic liquidity” can be needed for several reasons. For example, electronic currency exchange services may be required to allow the institutional investor to provide goods and services on B2B or B2C marketplaces in multiple currencies. Other reasons include a desire by the institutional investor to integrate execution into risk management systems or in conducting “black box” trading.
Various mechanisms have been provided to allow an institutional investor to connect electronically to a financial service provider. However, conventional implementations require a substantial portion of the messaging infrastructure to be implemented on the institutional investor's system. In addition, the communications protocol between the institutional investor and the financial services provider is configured for use on a dedicated network and generally unsuitable for use on open network systems, such as the Internet, where communications are “stateless”, making multiple step transactions more complex.
Accordingly, there is a need to provide an improved messaging framework which allows easy access by an institutional investor to financial services provided through a network, such as the Internet, and with only minimal processing required to be performed by the institutional investor.